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• Siloxanes, or silicones, such as cyclopentasiloxane, dimethicone, or dimethiconol.  These are typically used to improve the texture of formulations, helping products to apply smoothly and evenly.  These are horrible for the environment, and extremely toxic to aquatic life.  

• Disodium EDTA.  This is a chelant that is used to keep insoluble salts in solution.  It's a synthetic ingredient from ethylenediamine and formaldehyde, which are petroleum products, and sodium cyanide.  It's bad for the environment because it continues to chelate nutrients from water, making them unavailable to aquatic life that needs them.

• Petroleum By-Products, such as propylene glycol, mineral oil or sodium polyacrylate.  They’re used as moisturizers, thickeners and for texture in conditioners.  Propylene glycol has been found to cause severe neurological symptoms and seizures.  There have also been cases of nausea and vertigo.  Mineral oil is composed mainly of alkanes and cycloalkanes, related to petroleum jelly.  Aspire conditioner contains vegetable oils, to serve the same purpose much more responsibly.

• Propylene Carbonate.  Used as a dispenser and disperser, a similar purpose as emulsifiers.  Made from petroleum.

• Triethanolamine.  Triethanolamine is used to stabilize and increase the pH of products to improve the way they feel.  Triethanolamine is a mild skin and eye irritant.  It is made from ethylene oxide, a petrochemical, and ammonia.  Just another unnecessary nasty chemical that Aspire will never use.  Who would want this on their scalp?

• Synthetic Preservatives, such as quaternium-15.  Quaternium-15 is an allergen, and can cause contact dermatitis in susceptible individuals.  Quaternium-15 is a known human skin toxicant and allergen and possible eye irritant. It is also a formaldehyde-releasing preservative.  It is made from fossil fuels.  Aspire uses a mild natural preservative, tee tree oil, instead. 

• Fragrance, Perfume, Parfum.  If you see these words on a label, it should immediately raise suspicions about the product and the integrity of the manufacture.  Why?  Basically, the very usage of the term “fragrance” on a product label is the manufacturer’s way of making their product special or proprietary, so that they can sell more, take more market share, charge more for the product, or so the product can’t be duplicated by another manufacturer.  While these purposes can all be considered somewhat reasonable, the problem is that the "fragrances" that they are hiding from you, the consumer, are often synthetic organic carbons, typically made from fossil fuels.  And, many are extremely toxic to wildlife, meaning they kill at extremely low concentrations in water.  And, to make matters worse, because they are synthetic and complicated, they are difficult to treat in a conventional wastewater treatment plant, so they often pass into receiving rivers and streams in an untreated or partially treated state.  That is extremely unfair to the fish and wildlife that depend on these water sources to thrive, and a big reason that we’ve managed to kill off more than 50% of our fish and wildlife in just the past few decades.  Of course, there are processes that can be added to conventional wastewater plants to remove these complex chemicals prior to release into receiving waters, but these cost more money to build and operate, consume more energy, and of course that means more cost to the consumer.  So, I ask you, what is your preference?  Paying three times as much for your wastewater treatment, or avoid the use of products that have “fragrances” in them?  We have chosen the latter, simpler way to keep fish and wildlife safe, and Aspire products offer responsible choices for the consumer, that don’t contain “fragrances”.​​